President Obama greets a baby in the crowd at Nevada's Reno-Tahoe International Airport on Friday.

Photo: Cathleen Allison, Associated Press

President Obama greets a baby in the crowd at Nevada's Reno-Tahoe...

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Two women thank President Obama for his support of gay marriage outside a fundraising event in Seattle on Tuesday.

Photo: Elaine Thompson, Associated Press

Two women thank President Obama for his support of gay marriage...

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Rodney Upchurch stands with a large backdrop sign he made in support of the President Barack Obama outside a fundraising event for the president, Thursday, May 10, 2012, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

Photo: Elaine Thompson, Associated Press

Rodney Upchurch stands with a large backdrop sign he made in...

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Trenton Garris waves his rainbow flag in front of a banner in support of President Barack Obama who was visiting the Paramount Theater one day after announcing his support for same sex marriage, in Seattle on Thursday, May 10, 2012. (AP Photo/Kevin P. Casey)

Photo: Kevin Casey, Associated Press

Trenton Garris waves his rainbow flag in front of a banner in...

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President Barack Obama returns a toddler back to his parents as he greets supporters after speaking about mortgage relief, Friday, May 11, 2012, in Reno, Nev. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Obama's historic statement in support of same-sex marriage this week set off a political temblor in the 2012 election - and it sparked a tsunami of social-media fundraising led by gay and lesbian activists thrilled by the move.

Their urgent call: Send money. Lots of it.

"A cloud has been lifted ... and this will further energize an already excited base," said Chad Griffin, the incoming president of the Human Rights Campaign, which works for LGBT rights and is a major fundraiser for the Obama campaign.

Team Obama raised a stunning $1.5 million just 90 minutes after his statements in support of same-sex marriage to ABC, according to the political blog BuzzFeed.com.

"I think the floodgates will truly open, because he made a bold decision," said Fred Karger, the openly gay Republican candidate for president. "There are hundreds of millions in gay money that is ripe for the picking - and particularly with our civil rights at issue, people are ponying up as never before."

Obama had barely left California on Friday after his record-breaking one-night, $15 million fundraiser at the home of actor George Clooney when word came that he plans to visit the Bay Area on May 23 for a fundraiser at the Fox Theatre in Redwood City. Tickets start at $1,000, according to invitations posted online.

The president will be back two weeks later for a major LGBT gala on June 6 in Los Angeles starring the singer Pink.

Fiscal counterbalance

With just five months until the November election, the fundraising frenzy underscores the increasing clout of what some jokingly call "gay-dough" - a potential counterweight to millions in Wall Street money being scooped up by Republican super PACs and the campaign of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

It is not that LGBT donors had been sitting on the sidelines, said Wade Randlett, the San Francisco tech entrepreneur who is a member of Obama's National Finance Committee. As Wall Street donations have largely shifted to Romney's camp in recent months, gay donors had "done a lot of backfilling" to make up some of the difference, Randlett said.

But Randlett expects Obama's shift on same sex-marriage to multiply those donations at all levels.

"A $35,000 donor is going to say, 'OK, now my partner is in for another $35,000.' Somebody giving $25 is going to say, 'OK, now I'm giving $25 a month.' "

Randlett also expects an increase in contributions from the straight progressive community, where the issue particularly resonates among women.

"It reminds people of the Obama they worked hard for in 2007, 2008. Someone who takes strong, bold stands," he said.

Indeed, within hours of his pronouncement, Obama's team began to urge those who supported the president's same sex-marriage stance to send a message by sending a check.

"If you're proud of our president, this is a great time to make a donation to the campaign," Obama's national finance director, Rufus Gifford, wrote on the campaign website. The campaign also sent out a fundraising letter signed by the president.

Small donations add up

"Democrats have never been able to outmatch the Republicans" when it comes to big donors and high-end fundraising, Griffin said. "But to the extent that we can level the playing field with grassroots money and millions giving $5, $10 or $25 ... what better way?"

The campaign's entreaties were echoed by some of the most high-profile gay Americans and their supporters in the entertainment, business and tech worlds. The call went out to reward the president for what they praised as a courageous move in a closely contested election.

Among them were entertainment mogul Norman Lear and his wife, Lyn, progressives who had been withholding donations to Obama. They announced they each would give the maximum $40,000 to the president's re-election campaign.

Dustin Lance Black - the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of "Milk" - said on Facebook that "we must show our appreciation now" and urged donations to the Obama campaign.

Columnist and activist Dan Savage's call on Twitter had an even sharper edge: "Gay people better get out there and support the president," he tweeted. "If he loses in November, we'll be blamed."

Active bundlers

Studies from the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington, a nonpartisan watchdog group, show that influential members of the gay community could push the campaign's take even higher.

The center found that a dozen gay rights activists were major fundraisers - or "bundlers" - for the campaign and raised $2.7 million in contributions by the end of 2011.

They included Kathy Levinson, the former president and CEO of Menlo Park's E-Trade, who bundled up to $200,000 in contributions, the data show.

James Hormel - a founder of the Human Rights Campaign and the first openly gay man to serve as a U.S. ambassador - said the issue has reached a watershed moment.

"I think those people who were holding back or felt disappointed will come to recognize that they were expecting from him some kind of miracle," said Hormel, who was appointed ambassador to Luxembourg during Bill Clinton's presidency.

"In the LBGT constituency, it's going to cause people to reflect on just how much this president has done in the first three years," including ending the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy that banned openly gay service members and Obama's decision to stop enforcing the Defense of Marriage Act.

Those actions go "far beyond what any other president has done," Hormel said. "His concerns have been genuine and expressed with deeply felt concern."